The City Council on Wednesday will vote on creating a "Stadium Park Redevelopment Authority" a six-member board that would seek donations to bankroll beautification projects like new signs and better open space maintenance, particularly along the Main Street corridor leading up to the stadium.

On the Super Bowl scale, the improvements are likely to be relatively small; this is not the $3.5 billion in new investment the Houston Super Bowl bid committee chairman has projected, adding upscale hotels, residential towers and office buildings to the city skyline. And, the funds are not intended to affect the contentious question of what to do with the empty Astrodome, officials said.

The redevelopment authority would be an extension of two neighborhood groups - the South Main Alliance and the Main Street Coalition - that have long focused on traffic and beautification issues along the Main Street corridor, which includes the Texas Medical Center, the Museum District and NRG Stadium. The groups planted 500 trees lining South Main Street between Brays Bayou and the South Loop.

The groups saw a "window of opportunity" to press for improvements in the Super Bowl lead-up, said Susan Young, South Main Alliance executive director.

"The Super Bowl committee has been selling the city as a whole," Young said. "But we think this is an important opportunity to focus on this specific area."

Young hopes property owners will see this as the right time to invest in improvements. Though economists have long disputed the benefits to a city of hosting a Super Bowl, the event will bring thousands of fans to the stadium area. Young said it's the right time to pitch the area as a "gateway" to the city, a place where fans form impressions of Houston as they flock to the stadium.

"We want to put a good face on for the Super Bowl," said Ed Wulfe, recommended by city staff and property owners as chairman of the authority. "Many people will come via South Main Street."

The redevelopment authority's success could also have longer-term effects. If the authority brings in donations, it could signal to the Legislature that the area is ready to participate in a management district, city development director Andy Icken said. Those state-created special areas typically impose a fee on local business owners that is reinvested in development projects.

On the city's end, private investment is essential to getting ready for the Super Bowl. The city has not pledged any direct contributions, and the state is slated to cover $20 million of the roughly $50 million the Super Bowl is likely to cost. Bridging that gap will fall to the private sector.

To that end, the Super Bowl bid committee has largely been running the show. But the committee would work with the redevelopment authority if it gets off the ground, committee chairman Ric Campo said.

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